LaborTalk (132)                            January 29, 2011

Trumka and Chief Anti-Union Activist In Joint Statement  on  Infrastructure

By Harry Kelber

 

Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
who has consistently opposed pro-worker legislation, issued a
joint statement on Jan. 26 with AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka in  praise of President Obama’s  proposal in his State
of the Union address that called for federal  investment in the
nation’s infrastructure. Here is the text of the joint statement,
released in full by the AFL-CIO:

“U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas R. Donahue
and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following joint
statement on President Obama’s State of the Union Address:

“America’s working families and business community stand united
in applauding President Obama’s call to create jobs and grow our
economy through investment in our nation's infrastructure.

“Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband,
energy systems and schools, these projects not only create
jobs and demands for businesses, they are an investment in
building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete
in a global economy.

“With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO standing
together  to support job creation, we hope that Democrats and
Republicans in Congress will also join together to build America’s
infrastructure.”

Can Obama’s 21st Century Vision Become a Reality?
Even with  the powerful lobby of the two giant organizations
of labor and business, it will be difficult to get Congress  to
approve a heavily-funded infrastructure bill that can create
the millions of jobs that are needed.

The Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Senate
have been wedded to the idea that spending must be slashed
to reduce the federal budget deficit, a goal strongly
favored by the Chamber’s 3 million business members.

If Congress approves President Obama’s proposal for a
five--year freeze on discretionary spending, where will
the funding come for infrastructure projects?

If creating jobs for the millions of unemployed is (or
should be) a top  priority for the nation’s economic
agenda, why are we letting   corporations  outsource
hundreds of thousands of good-paying American jobs
to China, India, Malaysia and other low- wage countries,
with no effective effort by the Obama administration to
stop the practice?
                                  *   *   *   * *
With nearly 15 million people officially unemployed,
many of them without a job for a year or more, the
White House and Congress ought to set a target for
 how many millions of jobs will be created by
government and industry within a certain period of
time.  We need a  national jobs administrator, like
Harry Hopkins during the New Deal,  who kept
detailed records  of the progress of work projects.

And we need a  national policy for the millions of
workers who may never have a paying job again.

This is America, where we take care of the
unfortunate ones. Don’t we? -Harry Kelber